bd what is your ph readig?

Ed

That's a pretty rich brew of compost there! I'd suggest an inch or two of good top soil mixed into it as well to add soil microorganisms to it.

When you plant your tomatoes, you'll need to dig a hole through the top layer and the cardboard down into the layer below.

If it's poor soil, maybe you should make the hole pretty large and deep, and add your amended soil from the bed as a filler for the plants. Some plants with shallower and less extensive root systems won't require such care, but usually tomatoes do best when set into the best soil possible. When they grow beyond the boundaries of the planting hole, deeper or wider, all they've got to sustain them is in the soil they encounter plus whatever you've added.

If you want to see how one tomato enthusiast plants HIS tomatoes, take a look at the GW link below. You've already got the manure!

Here is a link that might be useful: Earls Hole Method of Growing Tomatoes

The beds have a lot more mushroom compost than cow manure compost. Probably a 3 or 4 to 1 ratio. Is that too rich? Also how deep should the holes be? Thanks.

Read the link.